Ali Ataie – Do Not Fear Other Than God
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
This is my final reflection during this,
blessed month of Ramadan,
2021
of the common era,
1442
after the
Hijra.
May Allah
accept our actions, our salawat, our siam,
our
and bless our community.
May Allah
bless the MCC.
Please support
the mcc it is an extraordinary
organization
with extraordinary people
They serve our community in
beautiful ways.
Support them in any way that you can.
I just want to say that as my
parting advice,
don't live your life in fear of anything
other than Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Tie your camel as the Hadith says, and
trust
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
suffices you.
Allah He says in the Quran,
Whoever
places their trust
in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala suffices him.
We live in a time when our religion,
our
faith, and our beliefs are becoming
more and more,
I guess you could say culturally unacceptable.
And it seems like this is just going
to get worse.
This idea of wokeness
is kind of taking over in a major
way
and creating this cancel culture
that seeks to eradicate
whatever it deems to be offensive,
right? And, of course, we know that the
Quran takes certain theological
and moral stances,
that many people will be
offended by.
We cannot allow ourselves to be intimidated.
Remember the
advice of the Prophet
when he said,
Aman tu billah
tu mastakim.
Right? Very beautiful Hadith,
where he says,
believe in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and be upright.
Be steadfast upon that.
Don't be afraid.
Face the world with courage
and,
and a confident faith. Kolidhaquin
kanamurah.
Speak the truth even if it's bitter.
And do not be afraid of those who
approach you for your faith.
Life is too short to let the mob
scare you into selling out your religion.
After the battle of Uhud, the hypocrites in
Medina tried to scare the Sahaba.
Right? They're quoted in the Quran, In nanaasa
qadjema'ulakum
fakhshohum.
Indeed, the people
are gathering against you.
Right? So be afraid of them.
And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells us
fazadahum
imana this only increased the faith of the
Sahaba.
And and God. So,
this only increased their faith, and they said,
God
suffices us.
What an excellent guardian he is.
Okay?
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
that if God helps you,
no one
can overcome you.
And if he forsakes you, then who can
help you
thereafter?
And in Allah
let the believers place their trust.
It is related
that Imam Ali Al Ridha, who was the
great great great great grandson of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam, once visited a certain town
and hundreds of people surrounded him and asked
him for a gem of wisdom
and to give them, solace.
So he said, I heard from my father
Musa Al Qadim, who heard from his father
Ja'far as Sadiq, who heard from his father
Muhammad Al Bakr, who heard from his father
Zainul Abidine,
who heard from
his father Hussain ibn
Ali, who heard from his father, Sayidna Ali
Karamalahu Wajah, who heard from his father-in-law, the
prophet sallallahu alaihi salam,
who heard from Jibril alaihi wasallam, who heard
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That La ilaha illallah
is
my fortress.
And so whoever says La ilaha illallah
with sincerity
in truth
has entered my fortress and whoever enters my
fortress indeed is safe
from my wrath, from my punishment.
So say La ilaha imAllah with sincerity, with
truthfulness and practice istiqamah in the religion.
Be upright, be steadfast,
And, we will be safe and secure from
the adab of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in
the next life. And, that is ultimately the
adab of entering
jahannam
and abiding therein.
The ummah of the prophet will
achieve
salvation.
Okay? This
is This is the promise of
Allah
And no one's
word or promise is truer than that of
Allah
Okay?
So
we will achieve salvation
in the form of,
paradise,
and spiritual proximity
to our Lord. That is the supreme publicity
and it is everlasting.
Okay? It does not come to an end
and nothing in this world is worth that
salvation.
If you go into
a random synagogue in the Bay Area, like
I have many times
over the last several years, you'll notice that
they let the circus in.
You know, the circus is in town.
If you go into a random church in
the Bay Area, you'll notice that they let
the circus in.
They were pounded into submission by the woke
zeitgeist.
You know, as Muslims,
let's stay our ground.
Let's not capitulate to the circus.
Let's keep the circus where it belongs, out
on the street, not in the masajid, not
in our schools,
not in our community centers.
Let's not drink the Kool Aid. It's really
not worth it.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, he says in the
Quran,
Okay. That you you will surely be tested
in your wealth and in yourselves.
And you shall surely hear
much hurt from those who are given the
book before you,
okay, and from those who are idolaters.
But if you are patient
and if you guard yourselves,
then that is indeed a course
worthy of resolve.
Imam al Tabari,
the celebrated exegette, he said that
that adhan, that hurt here in this ayah,
it means taunts and insults
as well as falsehoods and blasphemies
about God and his prophets.
So these things are expected. Allah,
he says, it's
a there's heavy emphasis in this verb. Indeed,
indeed, you will hear these things.
These things are expected. This is the nature
of a dunya.
The answer isn't to simply
relinquish one's principles.
Right? The prophet
he said, umati hadihi ummatunmar ummah.
This ummah of mine
this ummah of mine is an ummah
that has been granted mercy.
Its punishment is in this world,
and that is in and of itself, of
course, a form of mercy.
Therefore, being in Allah's
fortress,
okay,
does not mean
that we will not
experience
hardships.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
Do you think you're going to just enter,
paradise without experiencing,
struggle and showing patience?
In a hadith recorded with Imam Ahmad and
Imam Atirmiddhi,
that, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was approached.
You Rasulullah,
ayyuhanas,
Which of the people has the most severe
experiences, the most severe of tribulations?
Qala al Anbiya,
he said the prophets.
The prophets.
Why is that?
Because the prophets teach us
how to respond to the most difficult of
conditions.
Okay.
It's not because Allah is punishing them. The
prophets have their isma. They are divinely protected.
It's not punishment for them.
Okay? So read the Sira. Read about Mecca.
Read about
Medina.
The prophet
had a very, very difficult life. It was
one challenge after another after another.
But look how he faced it. The grace,
the courage, the steadfastness,
the trust, the love.
Ibn Umayyah, he records a hadith in which
the prophet
said
I have been tortured for the sake of
Allah as no one else has, And I
have suffered fear for the sake of Allah
as no one else has.
Okay. And don't forget,
his station is is the station of the
Habib.
He's Habibullah. He's the beloved of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. He's the highest station. He's the
best of creation.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
was raising his degrees,
okay, and establishing
the sunnah of his messenger.
Allah teaches us through him SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
He SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam is the greatest teacher.
I was only sent as a teacher. He
teaches us how to properly deal with adversity.
He teaches us to be principled
and not to obey our passions.
Okay. We're going to feel these inclinations,
you know, to just just go with the
flow sometimes. It should make things easier
or this feels right. Maybe I should do
that. Maybe this is how it's supposed to
be.
The prophet
he teaches us to be principled. He said
The intelligent one is he who subdues his
nafs, his lower self, and works for that
which comes after death.
Beautiful Hadith.
And the unintelligent one is he who puts
his lower self
in the pursuance
of its desires,
okay, and has vain hopes in God.
Okay, like someone who says, I hope,
I
hope to go to Jannah and then his
food
is is haram, his clothing is haram.
He looks at the haram. He listens to
the haram,
you know, he's lax on his prayer,
you know. What do you expect? That's the,
you know, tamani is
a type of hope that is not backed
with action. It's not Raja. Raja is good
hope.
Raja is hope that is coupled with action.
You have in the
Messenger of God a beautiful pattern of conduct
for whoever has raja, hope in Allah and
in the final day
and makes it frequent remembrance of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
So this idea that I hope this and
I hope that, but there's no action.
It's just someone pursuing their
their lusts, their desires.
Right? And then a lot of these people
justify themselves
through the book of Allah
through the Quran.
Many of them are young people, you know,
at the university after taking some,
you know, intro to philosophy
course.
They have now deconstructed
the text of the Quran and shown how
the evil
traditional,
and patriarchal ulama have weaponized,
the Koran to maintain their power
over the oppressed masses.
You know, this is just ridiculous.
It's it's nonsense.
It's really just nonsense. But that's their M.
O. They attack the ulama
because the ulama stand in the way of
them engaging in their immoral and degenerate
behavior.
Right. That's not to say that there are
people who are posing as scholars or people
who are who are bad scholars or doing
things for different
motives. But this idea of just like,
you know, condemning 1400
years of scholarship,
1400 years, thousands of scholars. They're all wrong.
They've all misread the Quran. I mean, such
arrogance. They all got it wrong. This is
what the Quran really means,
right?
This is called radical hermeneutics, and it advocates
this idea that there is no normative or
orthodox
interpretation of any sacred text.
So may Allah
protect us, protect our children
from such things.
We ask Allah
to give us istiqaamah
in our religion,
and to increase us in knowledge, to increase
us in confidence,
and to be able to share this religion
in a way that is
appealing to the heart and to the mind,
which is really the same thing in our
tradition.
Right?
And
to appeal to people on a personal level
and let them see
let them see the,
the tradition as something that is
not only relevant, but something that is good,
something that can help them.
Right? Something that
benefits them in both worlds.